Churchill, Manitoba is primarily known for its polar bears, beluga whales, and Northern Lights. And, while Churchill is teeny tiny (with just 800 residents!), the town actually has a lot more to offer than its impressive wildlife and Aurora Borealis. Here’s 16 incredible things to do in Churchill, Manitoba, one of the most unique and remote towns in Canada.
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Things to do in Churchill, Manitoba
1. Go on a polar bear tour
Okay, let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way first.
The most common reason that visitors make the journey to Churchill is to see its population of polar bears (up to 1,000!), which congregate in the area from late October through early November as they await the ice to form on the Hudson Bay.
Thankfully, there’s not a bunch of polar bears just running rampant in the town of Churchill itself, so, in order to see the planet’s largest land predator, you’ll generally need to go out on a tour. Usually, while you’re out looking for polar bears you’ll also see other kinds of wildlife, like Arctic hare, foxes, caribou, and ptarmigan.
There’s two different types of polar bear tours in Churchill:
- There’s a few companies, including Frontiers North, that have a special permit to operate in a restricted portion of the Churchill Wildlife Management Area, using a massive rover-like vehicle that’s designed to navigate across the fragile arctic tundra
- All of the other companies in Churchill are smaller operators that offer tours of publicly accessible trails in the area, using a truck/van, like Subarctic Tours or Discover Churchill.
During my husband, Justin’s and my visit to Churchill, we went on one of each of these tours and, if you have room in your budget, I’d strongly suggest you do the same, as they cover different areas of Churchill and provide slightly different experiences.
Plus, given that wildlife is, well, wild, there’s never a guarantee that you’ll get a solid sighting of a bear on any given tour—and how much would it suck to come all the way to Churchill and not see any polar bears?!
Psssst…planning a trip to Churchill is a bit confusing, given the limited availability of tours, transportation, and hotels. We wrote a whole guide with everything you need to know about going to see the polar bears in Churchill, but, if you don’t have the time to deal with the logistical hurdles, you can also join a group tour, like this 5-day trip from Winnipeg, where they take care of literally all of your trip planning for you.
2. Get a polar bear stamp in your passport
Everyone likes a fun passport stamp and Churchill’s novelty one is DEFINITELY fun—it has a polar bear on it, after all!
If you want to get your very own stamp, simply head to the town’s Canada Post.
I’m a bad travel blogger and left my passport back in Winnipeg—but simply found a postcard at one of the gift shops to get stamped instead. I was high-key bummed that I forgot it, so please get a fun passport stamp on my behalf!
Pssst… technically, getting a novelty stamp in certain countries’ passports, including the U.S., invalidates them. As far as I’m aware, these restrictions are rarely enforced by immigration officers, but please be aware of the risks before stamping your passport!
3. Head out on a beluga whale watching tour
Although Churchill is most famous for its polar bears, its beluga whales are a close second. From mid-June through the end of August, up to 60,000 beluga whales migrate to the Hudson Bay to give birth and raise their calves in its protected waters, with around 4,000 of these magical creatures making their way to the Churchill River.
Accordingly, one of the coolest things to do in Churchill is to get out on the water with the belugas, like a paddleboarding tour with Sea North Tours or a kayaking tour with Lazy Bear Expeditions. Belugas are actually known for being extremely friendly, curious creatures, so you have an excellent chance of having an up close and personal encounter with them while you’re out on the water!
Insider tip: If you’re not sure when to time your trip, many locals told my husband, Justin, and I that the best time to visit Churchill is in August, when it’s possible to see the “trifecta” in one day—beluga whales, polar bears, and the Northern Lights!
4. Visit Prince of Wales Fort National Historic Site of Canada
The Prince of Wales is a MASSIVE fortification at the mouth of the Churchill River. Built in the 1700s by the Hudson’s Bay Company, the English originally constructed the fort to help maintain its control of the fur trade against the French. Although the fort ultimately fell in 1782 without a single one of its 40 cannons being fired, it still holds some pretty impressive titles, including the oldest and northernmost stone fort in all of Canada.
The fort can only be accessed by boat, typically from July and August. There are a handful of companies in town that have specific tours of the fort, like Sea North Tours or Lazy Bear Expeditions, or it’s also a common stop on beluga whale-watching Zodiac tours.
5. Join a walking tour of the Cape Merry National Historic Site of Canada
Located on the shores of the Churchill River, Cape Merry is home to a stone battery, built in 1744, to provide supplemental protection to the Prince of Wales Fort.
It now serves as a good viewpoint for spotting wildlife, like birds or whales, and is a Parks Canada Historic Site. Guided walking tours, where you can learn about the history, flora, and fauna of this area, are available from mid-October through mid-November for a nominal fee.
6. Climb onto Miss Piggy
In 1979, a retired World War II cargo plane crashed shortly after taking off from the Churchill Airport. Luckily, the pilot and crew survived the crash.
The wreckage still sits at its original crash site and has become something of a beloved attraction in Churchill over the years. In fact, in 2017, Miss Piggy was selected to be painted as part of the Seawalls Churchill project, which is intended to raise awareness of the difficulties of living in a remote, subarctic town.
Today, you can climb onto its wings and into the body of the aircraft, where parts of the cockpit are still intact!
Insider tip: This area is popular with polar bears, especially during the fall, so if you’re here without an armed tour guide, I would suggest admiring Miss Piggy from afar and close to your vehicle.
7. Stop by the Itsanitaq Museum
The Itsanitaq is the most impressive museum in Churchill, with one of the world’s best and oldest collections of Inuit carvings, made from bone, antlers, and teeth, and artifacts, like arrow or harpoon heads. In fact, some of its artifacts date all the way back to 1700 BC!
There’s a taxidermied polar bear, musk ox, and walrus, in addition to a number of more curious items like a pickled polar bear fetus and qayaq (the Inuit word for “kayak”) made out of seal skin.
The museum is open year-round, but has more limited hours in the wintertime (1 pm-4:30 pm).
8. Live your best birder life
Churchill is a popular spot for birders, especially in late June through early July. In fact, over 250 species of birds nest or pass through Churchill, including tundra swans, snowy owls, harlequin ducks, and Ross’s gulls.
To see some of these magnificent creatures, you can either go out on a guided Arctic safari, like this option on a tundra buggy, or if you want to just head out by yourself, Cape Merry, the Granary Ponds, and No Pants Lake are excellent spots for birding.
9. Watch the Northern Lights
One of the best things to do in Churchill is to see the Northern Lights, given that there’s over 300 nights of aurora activity here every year.
January through March is the best time for them, due to longer nights and clear skies. That being said, you can DEFINITELY have a pretty spectacular show outside of this timeframe—Justin and I visited in mid-October and still saw stunning displays of the Northern Lights three of the nights we were in Churchill!
Churchill is small enough that you can see the Northern Lights just fine from its downtown area, but, for the best viewing, head to an area without any light pollution.
If you happened to have rented a car from the one lone car rental shop in town, Tamarack, you can drive east of town along Launch Road, past the airport, to escape the lights. Alternatively, there’s several tour operators that will take you out to see the Northern Lights, like Discover Churchill or Nanuk Operations.
10. Get an aerial view of Churchill on a helicopter tour
Hudson Bay Helicopters offer scenic and wildlife-viewing aerial tours of the Churchill area. Additionally, it’s the only tour operator that has a permit to fly into the otherwise inaccessible Wapusk National Park, known as the denning grounds for mama polar bears.
In the summertime, this is an awesome way to get a birds-eye view of the thousands of beluga whales in the Churchill River and, during polar bear migration season, this is one of the only companies to provide a money-back guarantee that you’ll get to see bears during your tour.
I can’t find any pricing online for these private and customizable tours, but I’d venture to guess they’re on the pricey side. That being said, if you’ve got some flexibility in your budget, this seems like an incredible way to see Churchill!
11. Learn about Churchill’s history at the Parks Canada Visitor Center
If you wound up taking the train to Churchill, you probably already saw the train station, but did you know it’s actually a Parks Canada Visitor Center?
The train station itself, built in the Queen Anne Revival and the Arts and Crafts style, is renowned for being much more ornate than other train stations in remote areas of Canada.
Additionally, there’s a nice museum inside, with plenty of educational signs about the history of Churchill, including its Indigenous people and the influence of the Hudson’s Bay Company, as well as its wildlife (including a cool life-size polar bear den!!).
12. Hike to the Ithaka shipwreck
The Ithaka was a 1920s steam freighter that ran aground in Churchill’s Bird Cove in 1960, after encountering a storm with 80 mile per hour winds. Thankfully, her crew was able to disembark and walk to safety and the ship was later stripped of basically anything of value.
Today, her rusting shell still sits out in the Hudson Bay, surrounded by water in high tide but accessible by land during low tide.
You can either admire the Ithaka from shore (we went to this viewpoint and saw two polar bears snuggling right in front of the Ithaka!) or can hike up to it if you want a closer look.
It’s only a one kilometer hike from shore at low-tide, but I’d suggest going on a guided tour, given this is a popular spot for polar bears to hang out. There’s several operators in town that offer tours here, including Beyond Boreal Expeditions and Discover Churchill Adventures.
13. Explore The Complex
Churchill was home to an American and Canadian military base for several decades. It abruptly closed in 1980, with the vast majority of the military buildings being destroyed and the population of Churchill shrinking by 5,000 people basically overnight.
The Churchill Town Centre Complex was said to be a gift to the town from the federal and provincial governments for such a large loss to Churchill’s economy and now serves as the town’s hospital, school, library, swimming pool, playground, theater, fitness center, gym, curling rink, and hockey arena.
For being such a teeny and isolated town, the Complex is SO impressive—Justin and I spent half an hour or so, just wandering around the building, admiring the Inuit artwork on the walls, and sliding down the larger-than-life polar bear slide!
14. Admire the murals
Churchill is home to almost two dozen colorful murals, highlighting Arctic wildlife and Inuit culture.
Most of these are from the Seawalls Churchill project, which brought artists from all over the world to paint colorful works of art on a variety of structures in Churchill, ranging from an abandoned radar station to the so-called polar bear jail. You can find a map of the murals here.
15. Attend an open mic night at the Tundra Pub
As you might imagine, nightlife choices in Churchill are, to put it mildly, on the more limited side.
However, the Tundra Pub, home to the “famous” Borealis Burger, hosts an open mic night every Tuesday during beluga whale and polar bear season and it feels like the entire town of Churchill shows up for it!
During our train ride up to Churchill, we made friends with a guy, who grew up in small towns in Iceland and Greenland. He was SO excited about this open mic night, as he said it was kind of a quintessential small town nightlife experience in Arctic areas—and he was totally right!
Even if you’re not much of a nightlife person, it’s worth showing up to see the town pack into the tiny bar and listen to Roy, Churchill’s designated chanteur, croon the night away.
Insider tip: We’ve heard that Churchill goes ALL out for Halloween, with parties at various bars in town, like the Tundra Pub and the Seaport Hotel. This just so happens to overlap with peak polar bear season, so if you love Halloween as much as I do, consider planning your visit around this time!’
16. Learn about Indigenous cultures
While Churchill was settled by the English for the establishment of the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1717, the area has long been the home to various Indigenous peoples for over 1,000 years, including the Sayisi Dene, Thule, Chipewyan and Cree peoples.
Like many places across the Americas, there’s a dark and problematic history of the treatment of Indigenous peoples, including the forcible relocation of the Sayisi Dene people by the Canadian government in 1956.
If you want to dive deeper into First Nations history, consider going on a tour with Dene Routes, where you can learn about the Dene people’s dependence on caribou and taste traditional foods, including freshly baked bannock and local jams.
I hope you enjoy all the awesome things there are to do in Churchill, beyond just its polar bears, belugas, and Northern Lights (although those are pretty darn cool too!). Do you have any questions about what to do in Churchill? Let us know in the comments below!
